[Avodah] Phantom Chazal

[kennethgmiller at juno.com]

I was perusing Pirkei Avos a few days ago, and found the following line: "Ain l'cha ben chorin ela mi she'osek..." -- Do you know how it ends?

Think about it before you read further. How does that line end? "There is no free person except one who is involved with..."

By my memory, it ends with "mi she'osek baTorah", "one who is involved with Torah". But in Pirkei Avos 6:2 -- okay, I know that's not really Pirkei Avos, but you know what I mean -- it ends differently: "mi she'osek b'salmud Torah" - "one who is involved with learning Torah". The difference is quite significant to me. One refers to Torah in general, which could include "merely" observing the mitzvos, while the other refers to one specific observance, namely Torah Study.

I looked in several siddurim and mishnayos, and they all include the word "talmud". I tried googling the phrase
+"ela mi she'osek"
and got many claims (such as from Yeshivat Har Etzion's www.vbm-torah.org/pesach/cherut.htm) that "ela mi she-osek ba-Torah" is indeed from Avos 6:2, although most sites simply quote the phrase with no attribution. Notably, I didn't see anyone include the extra word.

What does the chevra think? Are there some editions of the siddur or of the mishna/braisa which omit this extra word? Or are so many of us victims of remembering a Chazal that doesn't exist?

Akiva Miller

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